Call Me Comrade

Comrade Harry McAllister

Harry McAllister died the morning of Sunday, April 19th from complications of the COVID-19 virus.  He was 66 years old and had diabetes and heart problems.  At one point he was taken off life-support.  His daughter Mariana was allowed to spend the last few hours with him in HCMC hospital.  He is also survived by his brother Reginald who was also called Scott. 

Harry with the bullhorn at an anti-Apartheid INCAR rally at the U of MN

Harry was a life-long activist in the Marxist movement, first joining the International Committee Against Racism (INCAR), then the Progressive Labor Party (PL) in the 1970s.  In PL he was a socialist activist against apartheid, fascism and genetic racism, getting a basic course in Marxism, but probably drifted away from PL due to its ultra-left practice and ideology.  After PL he joined the Communist Party (CP) with his partner at the time, Janet Quaife.  He quit at some point and joined the “Independent Communists of Minnesota” which came out of the Committees of Correspondence. He then rejoined the CP in 1995 with his partner Janet after Erwin and Doris Marquit did, and remained a CP member until his death.

In his active political life, he supported internationalism, was an avid reader, especially in world history and sometimes gave the Party position at forums.  He was born in a small town above Wilmington, North Carolina, subsequently going to college in Winona, Minnesota.  There he defended a group of political Ethiopian foreign students from expulsion as a member of the Black Students’ organization on campus, which shows Harry’s early internationalism.  At one point he stood beside one of them in a confrontation with a racist with a sword.  In 1976 he followed them and went to the University of Minnesota, rooming with them in St. Paul in a crowded two bedroom apartment, helping to lead a rent strike there.  Among the Ethiopians he grew to appreciate Rastafarianism and the anti-colonial struggle of the Black Lion guerillas, who opposed Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia.

Harry studied political science at the U and joined INCAR, which was led by Val Woodward at the time.  In 1979 Harry went with PL to a protest march in Tupelo, Mississippi to confront a Klan rally.  Tupelo’s government allowed the Klan to use the post office as their headquarters, and the police allowed the Klan to march by splitting the PL contingent in two.  At that protest an INCAR member was later injured by a shotgun blast.  Later Harry went with PL to Chicago to picket the Nazi party headquarters in Marquette Park.  In 1984 he traveled with PL to England to support the Miner’s strike there against Thatcher and anti-union neo-liberalism. 

Older picture with CP position added - from Key Wiki, a CP tracking site.

Harry took Helvi Savola & Irwin Marquit’s places as the CP’s Minnesota District Organizer around 2007 and held the position for a long time.  As part of this Harry attended meetings of the CP Central Committee in New York with Janet.  He was also a part of the CP Labor Commission as a member of the Teamsters, which was his union in the St. Paul Public Schools.  At times he led conference breakout groups and study groups for the Party.  He was at the Peace Bridge versus the Iraq War, sometimes marshaled for anti-war marches and was keen on immigrant rights and open borders.  He opposed black nationalism and always supported multi-ethnic proletarian unity.  Harry later became the Minnesota CP’s education director after Irwin Marquit died.  In his last years while he was housebound, climate change became a large issue for Harry.  He pointed to China’s efforts to divert climate change - combating desertification and global warming by shutting down coal mines and concentrating on solar production.   He was also interested in quick 3D-printed houses in China as a way to combat U.S. homelessness.

Harry got a Masters with the help of Geneva Southall.  After teaching at Edison High in St. Paul he was pushed out of the school by a right-wing principal and became a teacher's aide, especially with kids with special needs.  He later left teaching due to health problems.  At one point he worked in group homes with older people, another job requiring a lot of patience. Though once while working at ADT Security he was involved in a fracas with a white bigot, so there was a limit even at work.  Harry was a kind and easy-going person who used interesting turns of phrase like “not everyone gets to be an asshole.” This reflects the fact that he refused to really politically oppose his friends and comrades on political matters.  Some have called him a ‘mystery man’ for not disclosing his personal details, but he would rather read than go to a bar or party.   Others have called him a real public intellectual. He used his African-American and Southern roots to infuse his perspective up here in the cold north.

The CP will hold a memorial for Harry at May Day Books sometime in May or June.

Here is a link to Harry and Michael Wood discussing Communism on local cable access Our World in Depth:  HM - Our World in Depth

Comrades that gave information on Harry are:  Peter Molenaar, John Wilson, Morgan Soderberg, Alan Dale, L. Hoover, G. Gibbs, Dean Gunderson, Craig Palmer, Theodros Tamrat, Tamrat Tandeme.

Red Frog

May 11, 2020